Well, friends, I had a couple new pieces of fiction published at the end of March, so I’m here to tell you about them.
The first is a short-story of medium length titled “Parkland Motor Hotel Blues” that has found a home in the new Motel anthology from Cowboy Jamboree. I took part in an online reading/launch for the collection on March 30, with 20 writers from across England, Ireland, and the US. My story is kind of a prairie hoser Sultans of Swing situaish, with a shot of UFOs on the side, and so far it’s only available through this collection. Check it out?
The second is a little piece of flash fiction inspired by the Neil Young & Crazy Horse tune “Don’t Cry No Tears,” which appeared on March 31 in Major 7th Mag, an online journal that makes monthly “mixed tapes” of short fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. Neat project, hope you’ll dig my little ditty about canoeing, the cosmos, heartbreak and friendship. The story came together over two evenings after the kids went to bed, sitting downstairs listening to Dume, typing on my phone.
Both these pieces are sliding into a very loose collection of new stories, so in the early days yet that it almost doesn’t bare talking about. But things are coming together, slowly but surely, with a similar enough vibe that if I’m lucky, I’ll have another books worth of ‘em in say, four or five years, lol.
I also received copies of Cowboy Jamboree’s Prine Primed collection, an anthology of writing inspired by John Prine. The press had run this collection as an edition of its online journal, but I guess they enjoyed it so much they wanted to have it out in the physical world, as well. I’ve got a piece of creative non-fiction included, inspired by the tune “Fish & Whistle” and an epic fishing trip down to the Illinois River that Brad Boston, Squirrelman, Chips Chesney, and Woodtick took once, way back in the good ol’ days when times were bad.
Really lookin forward to seein Neil & the Horse this July at the ballpark, you guys!